Music Festival Attendees Say “Molly” Use is Widespread

Young people who attend electronic dance music festivals tell The Christian Science Monitor that use of the drug “Molly” is widespread. The drug has been attributed to four recent overdose deaths, including two at a music festival in New York.

“I mean, there might be some kids that bring stuff with them to use or to sell, but the common idea is, you don’t bring sand to a beach,” Matthew Walcott, a former student at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire, told the newspaper. “There’s no reason to, because there’s crazy, crazy amounts of drugs everywhere.”

Wilson Compton, director of the Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said, “We’re certainly concerned about reports that we’re hearing in different locations, about complications and side effects of these synthetic agents.” He noted that “some people can die from the equivalent of heat exhaustion brought on by the excess activity under the influence of this substance.”

The drug, a more pure form of Ecstasy, comes in a powder. It has been available for decades, but has become more popular recently with college students. Mentions of the drug by music stars including Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West have increased its appeal.

Molly’s health risks can include involuntary teeth clenching, a loss of inhibitions, transfixion on sights and sounds, nausea, blurred vision and chills and/or sweating. More serious risks of the drug, also called MDMA, can include increased heart rate and blood pressure and seizures.

It is not uncommon to see people at music festivals and clubs go into a “K hole,” an almost-unconscious state, the newspaper reports. The term originally referred to an overdose of the drug ketamine.

A growing number of people who use Molly are buying drug test kits online, to test whether the drugs are laced with impurities.